John Yoo and US Law
March 2nd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
Khalil Bendib’s recent political cartoon on torture advocate John Yoo (a Professor of Law at the University of Berkeley) who drafted the infamous Bybee “torture memo,” and whose interpretations of laws regarding torture and the power of the US president were used by the Bush Administration to justify and defend their actions. Yoo (who has been mentioned in MSM lately) has thus far avoided all accountability, aside from a verbal slap on the wrist for “professional misconduct”.
Scott Horton of Harper’s Magazine wrote in December 2009 that:
The Holder Justice Department’s brief can only be squared with prior DOJ arguments this way: foreign lawyers in foreign Justice Departments have no immunity and can be held accountable, but lawyers who work for us have absolute immunity from any meaningful form of accountability. The path to a renewal of the criminal misconduct of the Bush years is being prepared right now. And Obama Justice Department lawyers are doing the work.
As Liliana Segura of Alternet points out, recent events continue to prove Horton’s point.
